Intermedia, January 2017, Volume 44 Issue 04

THE INTERNET CONUNDRUM CONTENTS

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more uncertain and dynamic in our telecoms and media world along come events that raise the most fundamental questions about cooperation, transparency and democracy itself. I refer to the impending UK exit from the EU (Brexit), the election of Donald Trump, and the rapid rise of concern about interference with elections and the proliferation of fake news, the latter at least being in play in the UK and the US, and which is being taken seriously now in other countries such as Germany. The internet of course is the enabler of fake news and hacking, but as Eli Noam explains in this edition, it is also an underpinning force in many aspects of society now, having effects on societal fragmentation, employment and inequality, and even political gridlock. I cast no political direction here, but 2016 may have shown that there is even more to the internet’s influence than we knew. Chris Chapman, president, IIC

A latest autonomous car concept, from Toyota. The European Commission has adopted a European strategy on cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), which it says is a ‘milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility’

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is much more than a UN talking shop and has the potential to be a key political networking body, reckons WOLFGANG KLEINWÄCHTER, who reports from the 11th IGF in Guadalajara.

Connected and autonomous vehicles will be leading users of the internet of things and 5G technologies. But almost all of today’s societal and regulatory issues will converge on road transport, as Julian McGougan reports.

Telecoms operators have missed the platforms boat but hope to regain ground with network virtualisation. RICHARD FEASEY discusses the technology and regulatory implications of a powerful but potentially double-edged movement.

January 2017, Volume 44 Issue 4

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